A very nice tutorial on beginning jazz improvisation

[AndyB]

How To Improvise Jazz

Enjoy!

 

[visionari1]

Thanks Andy, Have printed off for Bed time reading.

Cheers & Ciao
Jimu

 

[kevgermany]

Andy, thanks! Looks really interesting.

Thanks Andy, Have printed off for Bed time reading.

Cheers & Ciao
Jimu

Jimu, is this starting to explain what we were discussing the other night/morning?

 

[AndyB]

Thanks Andy, Have printed off for Bed time reading.

Cheers & Ciao
Jimu

Hope you get something out of it too. It was a light bulb moment for me seeing how to approach making a jazz melody out of scalar, chordal and non-scalar tones using just a handful of motives. It is probably something that professional jazz musicians know intuitively but don't put into words as clearly as this tutorial did.

 

[visionari1]

G'day Andy & Kev

My teacher has got me onto just playing 1:3:1 through the cycle of 4ths, also the arrpeggio & back to the root.

It's about being able to play/hear the interval clearly, after a while it becomes much easier.
He's getting me to focus on the numerals of the chord, not so much about the actual note.

Now I'm going to learn the tune "The Girl from Ipanema" by playing through the playalong (Hal Leonard Vol 8) by doing 1:3:1 and 1:3:1:7 (the lower 7th from the root, half step down for major whole step down for D7 & Minor)

It's taking some work, but already I feel massive improvements and also enjoyment.
The object is to just look at the chord symbol and play a pattern on it.
This way is using your ears alot and is interval based therefore, should be no big hastle to play in any key.

My next step up, once learnt for Eb (alto) I then go to Bb (Sop), and finnaly to C (Piano/Keyboard).
This should reallly get me totally conversant with the tune and chord structure and neccessary ear, finger adjustments.

Whew.....reading what I've typed seems a big ask....I think however it's not too difficult if you take it in small bites, and I've spent years ignoring Jazz theory and certain fundimentals, like scales!

I think I'm on the verge of a big breakthrough, with improv!
In 6 months time I hope to be saying, I can improvise through the chord structure, to quite a few Standards.

Cheers & Ciao
Jimu

 

[AndyB]

G'day Andy & Kev

My teacher has got me onto just playing 1:3:1 through the cycle of 4ths, also the arrpeggio & back to the root.

and 1:3:1:7 (the lower 7th from the root, half step down for major whole step down for D7 & Minor)

Interesting. I'm going to try that too. This kind of goes along with the idea that I posted on about working the triads(7th chords) and thinking of the rest as added notes. It makes so much more sense to me that way than thinking of scales.

Thanks for sharing this.

 

[visionari1]

Interesting. I'm going to try that too. This kind of goes along with the idea that I posted on about working the triads(7th chords) and thinking of the rest as added notes. It makes so much more sense to me that way than thinking of scales.

Thanks for sharing this.

Yup my teacher says it's the 1:3 & 1:7 that defines the chords, he's not so keen on the 5th, no difference or definition!

That's good Andy, keep me posted how you go on this....maybe we can nudge each other to higher levels?

Cheers;}
Jimu

 

[AndyB]

Yup my treacher says it's the 1:3 & 1:7 that defines the chords, he's not so keen on the 5th, no difference or definition!

That's good Andy, keep me posted how you go on this....maybe we can nudge each other to higher levels?

Cheers;}
Jimu

For sure. Also the bass guitar is going to cover the 1 and 5 so 5 wont have much "color" like your teacher says. I've noticed that in some R&B comping patterns the saxes may only play 3 and 7 (or 6) and leave 1 and 5 to the bass/piano/guitar. Thats one reason my ears perked up when you mentioned your practice patterns. It makes perfect sense for learning this style of comping (adding in the 1 for a point of reference).

 

[kevgermany]

You guys are a long way ahead of me. But please keep us posted, I'll be coming back to it when I get along further.